The Father who designed his family home

Having your first child is a beautiful thing and a huge landmark in life. As a Father many thoughts run through your mind in this new family venture and the one thought nearest to the top is locating the family home. We caught up with Marco Liberace, the newest Father in town, who bought his first family home with Shared Ownership at Royal Albert Wharf.

Quality in design

Marco, originally from Italy, and his partner Olga are both architects, working in London. Marco, who works for Mount Anvil, was actually involved in the design of the properties at Royal Albert Wharf, which was a huge factor in his decision to buy there. Marco explains: “We were quite happy renting in North London, however, with the upcoming birth of our daughter, we knew we wanted to move somewhere with more space, and the fact that I had worked on this development and knew the high quality of the properties meant that when the apartments came onto the market, it was a great opportunity for us to buy, especially using Shared Ownership to reduce our initial mortgage borrowing and mortgage requirement.”

Easier than we thought it would be

Marco continues: “Buying outright wasn’t really an option financially, but through Shared Ownership, we could afford to pull our savings into a deposit and then the rent and mortgage wasn’t that much more a month than we were previously paying when renting our small one-bedroom flat. We bought a 40% share of the two-bedroom apartment, which was £420,000 at full market value, and our mortgage for this share worked out at £170,000. The process of using Shared Ownership was easier than we thought it would be, we viewed the apartment in March and had completed the purchase by April. We plan in a year’s time, once Olga is back to work, to staircase, with the hopes of purchasing a further 20% share.

Caters to our family needs

“A big draw for us was that the apartments are right beside the water, and being on the second floor, we have some beautiful views of the docks from our balcony. We loved the design and the space of the apartments, especially the open-plan layout and dual aspect, allowing lots of natural light into the rooms. My wife and I have an en suite bathroom and our daughter has her own room. The apartment definitely caters to our family needs.”

Location investment

Talking about the location on the Royal Docks, Marco comments “As the area is undergoing regeneration, we saw huge potential here. The location allows me to get to wherever I need to be, and I can get across London easily. I get on the DLR at Gallions Reach and travel to Canning Town where I can then carry on to the Jubilee Line. It’s ideal for my office in Hampstead, taking around 80 minutes in total. Good transportation is important for my line of work I have lots of appointments across the city.”

Planning ahead

Looking towards his family’s future, Marco explains “We have already started looking at nurseries and schools in the area, and there is actually a nursery at the University of East London which is only a couple minutes’ walk away. Agatha won’t be going for several months yet but it’s always good to look ahead!”

Royal Albert Wharf is one of the developments in our E16 ‘trendsettlers’ portfolio. The area offers a great investment opportunity as areas benefiting from extensive regeneration, such as London’s Royal Docks in E16, are seeing price growth 20% greater than the growth across the UK as a whole. All our developments are close to a DLR station guaranteeing a quick and easy commute to Canary Wharf, the City and beyond.